Full icon tutorial: Aging effects through layers; PS7
I was specifically asked to make a tutorial for these, and since nobody's ever asked for a specific tutorial from me before, I couldn't resist. (Flattery will, indeed, get you everywhere. *grin*)
This tutorial was made in Photoshop 7, and should be more or less applicable in any version of PS5+. Do not ask my about PSP, because I do not use PSP and do not know how PSP works and cannot answer you. The tutorial is graphics intensive. I haven't gone into as much detail on the really basic steps as I usually might, but I have included a labeled screenshot of the PS7 desktop, and if you need more description on any of the steps I'll be happy to explain. :)
First things first. Here's a labeled screenshot of my PS7 desktop. I made it for another tutorial (a complicated one that I still haven't finished), but since Photoshop stays pretty much the same every time I open it, I think it's okay to recycle. *grin*
Okay, good. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's begin.
1.) Select and crop an image.
I know, that pretty much speaks for itself, right? But it needs doing. I have picked a lovely hi-res studio promo pic of Professor Remus Lupin, and I have used the CROP TOOL to put him right where I want him: in a new image, well framed, and at a resolution of 72. I went to IMAGE -> ADJUSTMENTS -> BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST and to IMAGE/ -> ADJUSTMENTS -> HUE/SATURATION and changed my base up just a little bit, but because I was starting with such a high-quality image, I didn't need to do very much to it (not even FILTER -> SHARPEN -> SHARPEN, which I probably do to 75% of my bases). Your mileage may vary.
(You may feel free to use this base of Lupin for this icon or any other, if you wish.)
2.) Contrast through desaturation.
A brief explanation: this is the order in which it is easiest to make this icon, not the order in which the layers appear in the finished product (and certainly not the order in which I first made this icon). This, in fact, is the order of layers in the finished product (you may want to refer back to this image later on):
Now, back to what we were doing: duplicate your base twice by right-clicking on it in the LAYERS MENU and selecting DUPLICATE LAYER. Now, take the top of those and go to IMAGE -> ADJUSTMENTS -> DESATURATE. This is one of my favorite tricks for mucking about with the contrast on an image. Put that desaturated layer on OVERLAY for a blending mode, and then bring down the opacity to something reasonable (for my icons, usually around 40%). Doing so will have just changed your base like so:
Original:
3.) Creating, and balancing, the Blue Exclusion Layer.
The Blue Exclusion Layer: trendiest of all trendy tools, it has a place in very few of my icons because I'm naturally contrary. Sometimes, however, it's just what you need.
Create a new layer (I use keyboard commands: SHIFT+CTRL+N). Select your FILL TOOL, and then in the COLOR SELECTOR put in a nice shade of dark blue. My color of choice for this icon is #000458. Set that layer to EXCLUSION blend mode. Then bring it down to around 50-60% opacity. Notice how the image is now much bluer than it was. While a cool effect, old photographs are not blue, and so we need to balance it out.
Remember how before I said to duplicate the base layer twice? And then we didn't use one of those duplicated layers! Well, now we're going to. Take the middle copy of the three -- it, and the bottom, should be as-yet unmodified. With that layer selected, go to IMAGE -> ADJUSTMENTS -> HUE SATURATION. Make sure you click the little "colorize" box, as shown here, and drag the sliders until you've got something fairly heavily into the red, like so:
And now your image is ugly. Ha-ha! But this is temporary. Take your RED layer and put it on OVERLAY. Then bring the opacity down to something in the 20-30% range and put that layer between the desaturated layer and the blue layer (refer back to the layers sequence, above). At this stage, you've got something like this:
4.) Brushes!
And now, it's time for some texture. There are only two brushes used in this image, and both are by
quebelly. The border brush is in this set, and the scratchy brush is in the "icon random" set. Go give her props for being the brush maven and don't ask me about it, because to date I've been too lazy to investigate doing it myself.
Anyway.
As you can tell by looking at my layers menu up there, I've duplicated eash brush several times; how many brush layers you use, in what precise colors, and in what blending modes, are things that will really depend on your personal taste and on the base you're using. Let's start with the scratchy one. ALWAYS USE A BRUSH ON A NEW LAYER. I use it first in its normal position, in white, and leave the blending mode and opacity alone. Then I tricked about with it a little: going to IMAGE -> ROTATE CANVAS -> 180, I rotated my whole canvas. Then I created another layer and applied my brush on that one. Don't forget to rotate the canvas back afterwards! I also rotated my image another 90 degrees, so that it was upside down, and applied a copy of the brush in a very dark brown. Satisfied with the number and intensity of the scratches on my "photo," I moved on.
5.) Final aging touch: another exclusion fill!
Same routine as before: create a new layer and use the PAINT BUCKET to flood fill it. This time, however, pick a nice dark brown. (I used #472B00). Leave it on top of all the other layers you've got, set it to EXCLUSION, and drop the opacity (in my case, down to 40%). Wasn't that easy?
6.) The Border!
I've already shown you the brush I used; I chose it because I liked its resemblance to the corners of old photographs. However, I was faced with a small problem: I didn't want it to be either too bright ot translucent. Achieving the right balance took three layers.
I used a color just *barely* off-white to apply the border, then I duplicated the layer twice, for a total of three border layers. ALL THREE LAYERS are set to SOFT LIGHT, at 100%. If you play around with the blending modes and the opacities yourself, you can see here especially how much they can make a difference, and why so many icons can have upwards of twenty layers in one still image. Of course, as in the rest of this tutorial, your choices may vary, depending on the base with which you began. I got this:
7.) Text and text effects.
At last, the finishing touches. :) I always use the TEXT PALETTE for my text; if you want to too, you can get it by selecting WINDOW -> CHARACTER. It's very useful. It's easier to show a screenshot of all my settings than to describe them one by one, so here it is:
I believe that text hue is the same barely-off-white I used for the border (it's been a while since I made the icon, so I don't actually remember, sorry). And any standard serif font will work just as well; I'm just especially partial to Garamond at the moment.
Now, you may have noticed that little polygon of color under the text (in my layers image, I called it "slashbox" because I couldn't think of anything else). That's the very last step. First, zoom in on your icon a little bit -- say, to 300% or so -- just to make it easier. Then select your RECTANGULAR MARQUEE TOOL (that's not marked in my desktop image; it's the one in the top left corner of the toolbar, just above the lasso tool) and select an area just about the size of your text, like this:
As soon as you've done that, create a new layer. Don't deselect that area! Pick a color, and use your paint bucket to fill that new layer -- which is just a little selection under the text -- with some shade. I ended up using a very dark brownish mauve (#33232C). This, though, more than any other step, will depend on your original base. I saved my Moony icon as a *.psd file with all the layers in tact, and then made Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs by just swapping the three base images. But this part, the enhancement under the text, I had to change all four times, because once it's been set to SOFT LIGHT, the blending mode I used, it reacts differently. So tool around with the colors and the blending modes until you've got the kind of balance you like. (In my case, I got it right after I rotated the layer, and it invovled using a duplicate layer, as you can see.)
The last step, which may actually be the next to last if after doing it you realize your choice of color and blend wasn't so great after all, is to rotate that little rectangle. Make sure you've got its layer selected, and then go to EDIT -> FREE TRANSFORM. Drag it around until you like the angle.
8.) Save and gloat.
Seriously, that's all that's left. :) I used this template to make four icons:
And the source images for all four were of various quality and hue. So this should work with most images, I think. And as is always the case with an icon tutorial, I espect that anyone who has made it this far will pick up a trick or two out of the middle, rather than following the whole thing step-by-step. I hope you can if you want to, though, and as I said before, I'll be happy to elaborate. :)